Lisa's F-Cancer Blog

Today’s appointment was the earliest yet – 8 am. Originally it was 7:30! My dear friend Leslie drove in last night so she could come with me. She must be a good luck charm because everything went smoothly for once! Nurse Laura was able to draw blood easily and the results didn’t take forever to come back. I can’t remember the last time both of those things occurred in the same appointment!

Aaron joined me for the appointment with the P.A. and then Dr. Brufsky. My liver ultrasound came back fine, but my rising liver levels are an issue. Interestingly, today’s bloodwork showed that they dipped slightly. This adds credence to Dr. Brufsky’s theory that the Keytruda is causing my liver enzymes to rise – it’s been three weeks since my last Keytruda infusion.

He’s been talking with the hepatologist, who wants to order more specific bloodwork. If it’s determined that the Keytruda is at fault, then they will either lower the dose, or more likely, stop it altogether. I was originally supposed to be on it for a year, which meant stopping sometime in September. But Dr. Brufsky said that there are debates about how long to use it, so there’s no specific number of doses. I’ve had six months of it or 3/4 of the original plan, which he said is long enough to benefit. He reinforced that going off it would be ok.

In case the Taxol is at fault, today’s dose was lowered. I hope that means the side effects won’t be as bad. I meant to ask how much lower – 10%? 40%? I’m curious; I’ll have to ask next week.

Depending on what the bloodwork shows and how I’m doing, Dr. Brufsky might have to put me on steroids for up to a month. These particular steroids would help lower the liver levels. He’s hoping we won’t have to go this route since there are side effects. Since the numbers went down, he’s holding off. They also didn’t give me Keytruda today to see how this affects my numbers.

I finally got the radiation oncologist referral for the hospital near me; I called and they will get my records from Magee and then call about an appointment.

I’m in the homestretch; two to go!!

Damn taste bud changes have gotten worse. Not only do certain foods taste too sweet, now some are tasting bland. Tonight we had a dinner that’s normally very tasty, but all the different parts tasted the same: bland! I’ve been having trouble finding snacks and other things to eat – and now this issue is seeping into my meals too.

I did some Googling, and apparently it can take 1-2 months after chemo for taste buds to return to normal!!

While Googling, I couldn’t resist looking up other side effects. I found one on breastcancer.org on hair loss, which offered a typical timetable for hair regrowth on the head:

• 3–4 weeks after chemotherapy ends: soft fuzz
• 1 month to 6 weeks after: real hair starts to grow
• 2–3 months after: about an inch of hair
• 3–6 months: about 2–3 inches of hair
• 12 months: 4–6 inches of hair

So my question is if I already have soft fuzz before chemo is over, does that potentially mean that the real hair might come in sooner once chemo ends? Aaron thinks I’ve moved into the second phase already, but it’s white hair and hard to tell. Regardless, it’s gonna be a long time before I reach my previous length!

The closer I get to the end, indeed, the harder it gets!

Now that Doran is 18, he can come with me to chemo. I took him out of school today so he could do just that. I figured it would be a good experience for him to see what I’ve been doing every week. One of the first questions he asked was, “Are you going to be unconscious at all?” See, all the more reason for him to come!

Unfortunately it ended up being one of the longer ones because again they had a problem drawing my blood. Rosanne thinks it might be something anatomical. After trying some tricks, she gave me the same medicine as last week, which worked without needing a second dose.

Both last week and this week the foot massage person came by but both times I was wearing the booties. Representatives from the Pitt women’s basketball team came today; they have a game on Sunday that’s being called Pink the Pete, for Petersen Events Center. They’ll all wear pink armbands to support breast cancer. One of the basketball players gave me a bag of Pitt gear: a pink Pink the Pete t-shirt, Pitt face mask, and a shocking pink Pitt beanie. She offered tickets to the game, but I declined. One guy who might have been a coach watched Doran and I play cards for a bit – who knew we’d have an audience‽

Three more. That does sound a lot better than four!

The blog software was wonky last week, which resulted in many people not receiving an email notification for last Friday’s post. If that was you, go read it now, I’ll wait.

Ok, good, now we’re all caught up!

Usually acupuncture helps with fatigue and energy levels but not this week. I’ve been sleeping a lot. I’m afraid the cumulative effects of chemo will be the starting players going forward. I’m on a mountain – I can see the summit, but it’s going to be hard and painful getting there.

I messaged one of the PAs about this, and she confirmed this morning that it is very common to have increased fatigue towards the end of treatment due to their cumulative nature. She said it’s important to eat and drink to stay nourished and keep up my strength, and to take breaks and rest when I feel I need to.

When it comes to my taste buds what I miss the most is that tangy/tart/sour taste that I so love in my orange juice, candies, and desserts. Those things now taste too sweet. If you know me, you’re probably shocked to see these words!

My hair slowly continues to come in. Last night I noticed the bald patches are now seeing growth. Progress!

A surprising symptom that popped up this morning – foot pain along the side of my left foot, near the bottom. Maybe I stumbled and don’t remember it. I asked Maddie, the PA, if this could be neuropathy as I didn’t know if it showed up just in the toes. She said it sounds like it most likely is neuropathy, which can affect any part of the foot. Great… She said to take Vitamin B6 100 mg twice a day. I was only taking it once a day, so I’ll add yet another pill to my stash.

I went to the dermatologist today because I’ve had uncontrollable itching on my upper back, and it’s spreading onto my arms and neck. She said it’s eczema, caused by the chemo dehydration. I got a prescription cream. Chemo – the gift that keeps on giving!

My vitals are always taken prior to bloodwork. I don’t know what was up with the blood pressure cuff, but it had a mind of its own and wanted to squeeze the life out of me. The medical assistant pulled out another one, but it did the same thing. She resorted to taking my blood pressure manually.

Typically, the nurses have difficulty drawing blood from my port. I have to turn to the left and/or lie back (damn, there’s that lay vs lie issue again!), and/or put my right arm up over my head. None of those tricks worked today. They said the port had some buildup, which is common after a while. They asked the doctor for permission to give me a medication through the port that would dissolve the buildup.

A platelet count was necessary for this, though, so Rosanne tried drawing blood from my right arm. But no blood was coming out – and I have good veins! Onto the left arm, which thankfully worked. She didn’t want to waste a stick, so she left it in, saying we’d take it out once the port was working. It was uncomfortable and hurt, and made me appreciate the port all over again!

The approval came in for the medication, so the nurse (I never caught her name) pushed it in and left the vial attached. Half an hour later, she checked to see if it was working. Of course it wasn’t, so she left it in for another half hour or so. Thankfully by that point, it had done its job. Out came the stuff in my left arm, and I got the pre-meds and then the Taxol. Whew.

Now I only have FOUR treatments left! One for each week in February. This past week was similar to the one before, where I was dragging and had symptoms like nausea. Even yesterday and this morning, I wasn’t feeling great, when normally I’m in better shape. But the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter!